Bomber tennis stays hot, sweeps Kewanee

The Macomb girls tennis team continued its strong play in dual-meet matches, sweeping Kewanee 9-0 on Wednesday night.

The Bombers improved to 5-1 in duals this season, winning their fifth-straight.

SCOTT HOLLAND

The Macomb girls tennis team continued its strong play in dual-meet matches, sweeping Kewanee 9-0 on Wednesday night.

The Bombers improved to 5-1 in duals this season, winning their fifth-straight.

“The girls have a lot of underclassmen, we don’t have any seniors on the team, but the girls have really surprised me this year,” Bomber tennis coach Ryan Wilson said. “I kind of expected them with a lot of sophomores and juniors playing varsity we’d have to work through some stuff, but we came out playing strong this year and have put up an incredible record.

“They’re working really hard every night, really going this year to next year we have some really exciting things coming up.”

“We kind of stress that a lot, football coaches use the phrase ‘getting off the bus and being ready to go’ and we have that same mentality,” Wilson said. “The first game, first set, first point, let’s be ready to go.

“A lot of times at the high school level, so much of the game is mental and if you come out and take the lead and put pressure on the other player, sometimes you can capitalize on that other player struggling a little bit. We do a lot of singles work in practice and I think those challenge matches help the girls with that mental edge so when you get to the competition, you’re ready to go.”

Macomb has also settled into a groove behind those singles players. The challenge matches have helped sort through the youthful lineup and given Wilson an idea of what his best team each night is ahead of schedule.

“We’ve had some movement in the last week or two and we’re going to continue those challenge matches all the way through the season, so you have to have that constant pressure of playing to keep your spot, so we’ve had challenge matches to make sure we have everyone in the right spot,” the coach said. “This last week, we’ve had people move different directions at the varsity level because of those wins and losses so we’re keeping that competitive edge in practice and it’s carrying over into matches. The big thing is not having the girls take it personally when they’re playing for a spot, and when that’s over it’s back to being teammates, so that competition has really helped us.”

Doubles completed the clean sweep as at the teams of Dawson and Gruidl (8-2), Rhoads and Ni (8-1) and Heuer and Dobrzycki (8-5) al scored wins. The Bombers have been buoyed by several newcomers not just to the program, but tennis, as Wilson has taken advantage of the athleticism his team has.

“We had some girls come over from the volleyball program which is helping us with some athletes and then taking those athletes and turning them into tennis players,” the coach said. “Alison and Emma are a couple girls who came over and really only played tennis for a year, and for Alison it’s been weeks of tennis and she’s already getting wins on varsity for us. That’s an incredible transformation and fun to watch. To take somebody who knows nothing about tennis and in a couple weeks they’re up here able to help, that’s part of the fun of the process of being a coach.”

Reach Scott Holland via email at sholland@McDonoughVoice.com and follow him on Twitter @hottscolland81.

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